Four fishermen were attacked with long knives allegedly by Sri Lankan Naval personnel off Kodiakkarai in Vedaranyam in the early hours of Wednesday.

The boat reached here about 8.30 a.m. Three of the injured fishermen were rushed to Thanjavur Medical College Hospital, while the other was brought to the Nagapattinam Government Hospital.

Six fishermen from Nambiyar Nagar fishing habitation were fishing off Kodiakkarai when their boat was intercepted and attacked around 3.30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Selvakumar (22), who was admitted to the Government Hospital here with a broken wrist and cut injuries on his thighs and palms, said that their vessel was intercepted by an interceptor boat with three men on board.

“We saw a man in the approaching boat waving a sickle at us. We tried to veer off their course, but were rudely intercepted,” Selvakumar told The Hindu. Two men jumped on to the vessel and attacked the boatmen.

However, he could not recollect whether they were uniformed men, but could say that it was an interceptor boat used for maritime security.

Our Pudukottai Special Correspondent adds:

In a similar incident, a group of eight fishermen of Embavayal village near Jagathapattinam in Pudukottai district suffered minor injuries when they were attacked allegedly by the Sri Lankan naval personnel on Tuesday night.

According to police sources, the fishermen who ventured into the sea on two country boats on Tuesday evening were intercepted in mid sea.

The naval personnel allegedly attacked the fishermen with logs, besides damaging the fishing nets and throwing the entire catch in the sea.

The fishermen who suffered injuries returned to the coast in the night itself, police sources said.

Indefinite strike

Fishing habitations of Nagapattinam announced an indefinite strike in protest against the attacks.